Dr Rachel Hiller

Research Officer

Profile

Dr Rachel Hiller is a Prize Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology. Her research primarily focuses on identifying social and cognitive processes linked to mental health outcomes for children following trauma, with a particular interest in young people who have experienced multiple traumas or maltreatment, and translating this information to improve evidence-based treatments.

Rachel first joined the Department of Psychology in 2014 as a postdoctoral researcher, working on an ESRC-funded project (PI: Dr Sarah Halligan) exploring how parenting may hinder or facilitate children’s psychological adjustment following trauma. Prior to this she completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Flinders University, where her research focussed on improving understanding of how autism spectrum disorder presents in females. Her clinical psychology work has primarily been in the areas of child and adolescent anxiety and sleep disorders.

Rachel’s main research explores pathways to mental health and functional outcomes following abuse or neglect, for children and teens in the care system. Her other line of research is interested in support and coping following trauma, when experienced in the context of other significant adversities, with a focus on children and teens living in a large urban Township in South Africa. In 2017 she will begin an ESRC Future Research Leader grant to support her work on children in care.